The man behind Russia's anti-Putin rallies

Blogger Alexei Navalny emerges as prominent opposition voice in the protests against the powerful PM.

11 Jan 2012 18:35 GMT

The Russian blogger leading vote-rigging protests against Vladimir Putin has accused the prime minister's supporters of seeking to smear him with a fake photo.

Alexei Navalny has proved that a picture in a newspaper distributed by Putin supporters was a forgery. The picture showed Navalny alongside the fugitive Russian tycoon, Boris Berezovsky, who lives in London.

A lawyer who took on corrupt state companines, Navalny has found himself leading recent protests against Putin's party, accused of rigging the recent elections.

But as Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports, many are concerned about Navalny's extreme nationalist views. In a country where foreign labourers face frequent attacks, he has described migrant workers as “rotten teeth that need removing”.